5th Grade: One Point Perspective

One point perspective is a way of creating depth in an art work . It makes it appear like objects or buildings are becoming further away. 5th Grade learned about the horizon line and a vanishing point. Students were aloud to create an indoor or outdoor scene for winter or the holiday season. Some students decorated living rooms with Christmas trees and stockings while other did a snowy street with Christmas lights hung from the buildings.

Kindergarten: Cave Drawings

This post i a bit overdue because it was our second lesson of the school year. What better way for my young kindergartners to start their art journey than to look at the oldest art found on record, cave paintings. This is where it all began, the idea of putting images and ideas down on a surface. Kindergarten and I looked at the Lascaux Cave. We discussed the images of animals, hand prints, and hunters. We discussed the materials that the cave men and women would have used.

Then we created our own cave around the water fountain with their own cave drawings. They included their hand print as well as any type of animals that would have been found in cave paintings. My kindergarten friends used chalk pastels to complete their drawings.

Christmas Crafts!

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*  HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!! *
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I apologize for not getting this post up sooner, but I was too busy enjoying the christmas break, like I hope you all did! Here are some crafts done before we went on break.

Second grade created these brown paper bag gingerbread houses. The bags were still able to be opened in the back, and could double as a gift bag! Although sparkles can be messy I still love the beauty they add.

Both second grade and kindergarten used our last day before break to create these "ugly" Christmas sweaters. Some are crazy while others kept theirs a more cute than ugly.

4th Grade: The Great Wave

The Japanese artist, Hokusai, is famous for his wood block print called, " The Wave of Kanagawa".
Students recreated their own version of "The Great Wave", but were required to only use cool colors in the foreground and warm colors in the background. The colors created a vibrant twist on this classic.

8th Grade: Principles of art

Last year eight grade learned about the art elements. This year they learned about the principles of art, emphasis, contrast, unity, pattern/rhythm,  movement, and balance. Students made a small book using each page for a different principle. On each page they created a little piece of art the represents that principle, combined with an element.

5th Grade: Melting Clocks

Have you ever seen the paining of "melting clocks" by Salvador Dali? This famous painting was created from a dream that Salvador Dali had. The students and I discussed the meaning of "surrealism" and looked at a few more of Dali's paintings. If you have not seen the painting "The Persistence of Memory", by Salvador Dali, here it is.

These "melting" clocks were made from clay. Since St. Elizabeth does not have a kiln, the students use air dry clay to build their clocks. As the clocks dried, we draped them over the edge of a table to appear as if they are melting like the one in the painting. Without a kiln, the students also can not use glaze, so they used acrylic paints to add color to their clocks.

This photo shows how the clocks will look draped over a shelf or table.

2nd Grade: Radial Weavings

This weaving may be beautiful but they sure took hard work! Second grade discussed what radial design is, meaning a circular design. They first used lines to paint a radial design on their paper plates. The next part of this project was to weave yarn in a radial design. For some this was quite challenging, but with the help of my self AND help from there peers we were able to grasp the idea. The results were amazing!
To see a close up of the line rugs, check out first grade's post.

1st Grade: Line Blankets

Marker lines, paint lines, oil pastel lines, yarn lines! First grade created tons and tons of lines for this project. First we looked at different blankets and rugs from around the world and the different lines patterns they have. For example, Kente cloth from Africa, Mexican textiles, Navajo textiles, etc.

I'm in love with all the colors and texture on this wall! To see the radial weaving, check out second grades post.